


feet begin to run (pounding in my brain)

by lauraby



Series: Sweet Hitch-Hiker [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - No Hale Fire, Creeper Derek, Gen, M/M, Pining, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-26
Updated: 2013-03-26
Packaged: 2017-12-06 13:13:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/736094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lauraby/pseuds/lauraby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If the words to explain what draws him to Stiles exist, then Derek doesn't know them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	feet begin to run (pounding in my brain)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [A Slight Distraction](https://archiveofourown.org/works/725835) by [otter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/otter/pseuds/otter). 



> Yep, so apparently I'm not done and there's going to be more of this. Thank you to everyone who read or commented on the first part, you all are extremely encouraging (especially otter - I'm serious about framing that - I will.) And in keeping with the theme, the title of this is also from a CCR song. If you can guess which one without the power of Google - you get a cookie. ;)
> 
> This part takes place in December of Derek's senior year and I'm thinking there will be another three parts after this. Thanks for reading!

 

Laura had been dead set on attending NYU since she was old enough to understand what the word “undergraduate” meant. Their film school at Tisch was nearly unparalleled and since she’d wanted to make movies since she’d inherited their parent’s old video recorder when she was nine, NYU had been her dream school for nearly as long.

Derek rues the day she decided the American Film Institute in Los Angeles was a “better fit” “creatively” and, “Their mission statement is basically my motto, little bro. And now I can come home for all the major holidays! And some weekends!”

Rues the day.

Because Laura had decided to go to college within the state of California, instead of New York like Derek had been expecting for the first fifteen years of his life, Laura is home early for the winter holidays.

With bells on. Literally. Her earrings – they jingle.

Derek had been hoping to take advantage of her Christmas-induced-attention-deficit-disorder and sneak out unbothered about his plans for tonight.

Because there’s an away game.

It’s the last JV lacrosse game before school lets out for winter break and Derek is going. He’d had his mom’s car keys in one hand, his leather jacket thrown over his shoulder, and was just reaching for the front door knob when Laura appeared.

Like a fucking Pokémon in a field of high grass.

Which is how Derek finds himself riding shotgun in Laura’s Camaro, on the way to Stiles’ away game, feeling like he’s about to face the Spanish Inquisition.

And Laura is his parent’s favorite child for a reason – she never disappoints.

“So, he’s a freshman, right?” Laura asks rhetorically, one hand on the steering wheel as the other adjusts her heater vents. That had been one of the deciding factors in the AFI versus Tisch debate. Laura hates the cold.

“…”

“I’m going to take your silence as, ‘Yes Laura, brilliant deduction, as always. My little honey muffin _is_ a freshman, and so handsome with his eyes like whiskey-colored buttons-‘”

Derek grits his teeth and glares at her a little before saying, “ _Yes_ , Laura. He’s a freshman. And he’s not _my_ anything. You didn’t have to come, you know? I have been to a game before.”

Laura smiles at his interruption, seemingly taking a sick enjoyment from getting a rise out of him. Derek is usually pretty unflappable when it comes to Laura’s teasing, having endured it for his entire life, so his defensiveness must be like ambrosia to her.

“So how many games have you gone to?” Laura asks casually, seemingly unconcerned for the moment with his defensiveness. She takes the next exit on the highway; she clearly remembers how to get to BHHS’s rival campus easily from her days as Co-Captain of the Cheerleading Squad.

“… Some of them,” Derek says, concentrating on keeping his heartbeat steady as a metronome, wishing once again that Laura had gone to NYU after all.

“So, mom told me something interesting, Baby D,” Laura says, with a wicked smile. “Do you want to hear it?”

“Please don’t call me that,” Derek mumbles, knowing that resistance is futile and she’s going to tell him anyway whether he answers or not.

“I’m going to take that as a, ‘Yes, Laura, don’t keep me in suspense – please tell me what our darling mother confided in you almost as soon as you arrived home from school,’” Laura says, in a horrible imitation of his own voice. Good thing she’s going into directing and not acting.

“Mom says you’ve gone love-stupid for some guy on the lacrosse team. Apparently mom and dad have been speculating on whether it’s the Captain – and really, they should give you more credit – your little benchwarmer is way cuter than Richie Weston. He has nothing on his brother in the looks department, that’s for sure.”

Derek can’t help grimacing at that. Even if he weren’t seemingly Stiles-sexual, he’d like to think he has better taste than Richie Weston.

Laura sees his facial expression out of the corner of her eye and starts giggling helplessly, “That’s what I said!”

Derek can’t help smiling back; he likes being reminded that Laura isn’t completely horrible _all the time._ Just the majority of it.

Derek’s good mood lasts all the way until they get to the opposing team’s school. He decides that he’s not going to let Laura’s uninvited presence distract him from his purpose here – morally supporting Stiles. And the team. But mostly Stiles.

Laura seems happy to be here with him, waving at some of her old friends who are here to watch their younger siblings. Maybe Laura coming along won’t be completely horrible.

And then the team begins running their pre-game drills. Coach Finstock seems to grow more manic with each passing game – his hair is standing almost completely on end at this point. He’s yelling at the team to run faster and harder; especially at some kid named Greenberg.

This is usually Derek’s favorite part of coming to the games, if he can be said to favor any one part more than the other. This happens to be Derek’s favorite part because it’s not just first-string out on the field, the second-string players get to be in on the action, too. The pre-game drills are usually the only part of the game that Stiles actually gets to participate in, besides being their de facto cheerleader and the requisite hand-slap line at the very end.

But this time Laura is here, and he can feel her watching him; worse than that, _watching him watch Stiles._

Derek has never seen his face him in a mirror when he’s looking at Stiles, but he can literally feel his features softening just by looking at the kid slide gracelessly around the field.

It’s like Bambi on ice sometimes, especially when the field is wet (which it is, it had rained earlier in the day).

Derek thinks he must have just had a growth spurt; he’s seen Stiles flail his long limbs around like he doesn’t know where they came from or how they came to be attached to his body. And instead of finding it irritating or worrisome when Stiles can’t seem to control his limbs and ends up smacking random passerby, Derek is just hopelessly charmed.

Derek doesn’t know what Laura is gaining by watching him like the creeper she is, but he’s pretty sure he doesn’t want to be giving it to her. It feels like ammunition.

“What is it about him?” Laura asks, after seeing his small smile at the sight of Stiles tripping over his own lacrosse stick and flailing around before righting himself and running towards the defender again.

Derek looks over at Laura and her face is as serious as he’s ever seen it. He contemplates her question for what must be the hundredth time since he saw Stiles in the school cafeteria this past September.

He’s asked it of himself, of course. Objectively, he can see what she sees when she looks at Stiles. A skinny, clumsy kid with shorn hair, pale skin, plain brown eyes, moles that some might say detract from his overall appearance.

Objectively, he sees that.

But if the words to explain what draws him to Stiles exist, then Derek doesn't know them.  
  
All the metaphors and similes Derek tries to compare it to taste like ash in his mouth, and he thinks it's not that he doesn't have the words to express what he's feeling; it's that they don't exist. Derek will have to invent new words to explain what he feels for Stiles.  
  
Little ones, so that Laura will understand.

 


End file.
